Pinus XI 33 



The Pyrenean form was apparently introduced by Captain Cook, as young 

 plants were raised in the garden of the Horticultural Society from seed procured 

 by him. Apparently this variety has been entirely neglected since, and we 

 are scarcely in a position to judge concerning its capabilities as a forest tree in 

 mountainous districts and on peat-mosses in this country ; but recently some 

 experimental planting has been done by Sir John Stirling Maxwell 1 at Corrour, 

 Inverness-shire, with seeds obtained from the government seed-establishment at Mont 

 Louis, in the Pyrenees Orientales. The finest examples of this form that we have 

 seen is a tree at Essendon Place, Hertford, which measured, in 1907, 51 ft. in 

 height, with a stem clear of branches to 30 ft., and 5 ft. 5 in. in girth. A good 

 specimen in the Cambridge Botanic Garden measures 41 ft. by 3 ft. 5 in. At Sir 

 H. Farquhar's seat, Gilmanscroft, Ayr, there is a tree of this variety. At Glasnevin 

 a slender tree measures 35 ft. high by z\ ft. in girth. 



When Henry was at Annecy in 1904 the late Mr. Guinier, Inspecteur des 

 Forets, showed him a plantation of P. montana, twelve years old, raised from 

 Pyrenean seed. He considered that this race is quite distinct and much finer than 

 the race in the French Alps. Its growth is only slightly less vigorous than that of 

 P. sylvestris, over which it has certain advantages, as it is the sole species in France 

 available for planting peat -mosses, and, moreover, thrives on arid soils, where 

 P. sylvestris grows very slowly. It has a dense cover, but always lets a little 

 sun fall on the ground, even in the thick forests of the Pyrenees. The two 

 races, that of the French Alps and that of the Pyrenees, planted in the Fort du 

 Cret du Maure, near Annecy, retain their characteristic differences. 



The intermediate form seems to be the one most general in cultivation, not only 

 in this country, but also in Denmark, where it has been extensively used for planting 

 the dunes and barren tracts in Jutland. It was introduced into Denmark from 

 Eisenach in Thuringia in 1786, and has come true from seed. It attains on poor 

 soil about 20 ft. in thirty or forty years, and then ceases to grow ; and can scarcely 

 be looked upon as of any economic value, though the improvement of the soil may 

 prepare the way for other species. In Denmark 2 it is usually planted on the dunes 

 pure at first, and afterwards the common spruce is introduced, which is a more 

 valuable species, but one impossible to start by itself on poor soil covered with 

 heather. Miiller, who is the greatest authority on this species of pine, introduced 

 the upright variety 3 of the French Alps in 1886; but it is said to be more liable 

 to the attacks of fungi. It is remarkable in this, as in many other cases of intro- 

 duction of a species, that the seed from the best form (from the Pyrenees) should 

 not have been selected. 



In England the best specimen we have seen of the intermediate variety is a 

 tree at The Wilderness, White Knights, near Reading, which consists of six stems, 

 arising from a very short butt 6 ft. in girth, and rising to 60 ft. in height. There 



1 Trans. Roy. Scot. Arb. Soc. xx. 7 (1907). The seed of the Pyrenean variety, which can be obtained through the 

 British Embassy at Paris, has been regularly supplied to the Norwegian Government for the last three years. 



2 Cf. Quarterly Journ. Forestry, iii. 74 (1909), where a full account of the heath plantations in Denmark is given by 

 Mr. A. C. Forbes. 



3 Known as the Pin de Brianconnais , or in seed catalogues as P. montana gallica. 



